Abstract
Two legal systems exist in the Soviet Union today, each functioning quite independently and bearing little resemblance to the other. The first, the one about which the average American citizen knows the least, is the legal system that, day in, day out, maintains law and order, enacts and enforces the law, and adjudicates the disputes that inevitably arise among citizens and institutions in modern societies. Existing alongside this legal system is an arbitrary and repressive system used to punish critics of the regime. To call the latter an apparatus for the administration of justice distorts the concept of justice beyond all recognition. In this second legal system, which is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 13, law and legal institutions are used in an arbitrary and brutal manner to suppress political, national, and religious dissent.
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© 1988 St. Martin’s Press, Inc.
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Smith, G.B. (1988). Socialist Legality and the Soviet Legal System. In: Soviet Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19172-7_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19172-7_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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